scratchfandomcom-20200213-history
Scratch Secrets
In the Scratch Forums, Scratch Team member natalie published and stickied a forum thread titled Scratch Secrets. It lists many unknown tips and tricks, many of which improve a Scratcher's programming skills. Tips These are the tips listed in the forum thread: Sprites *'Finding a sprite'- To show a sprite that is off-screen or hidden, right-click on its thumbnail in the sprites list and select Show. *'Costumes into sprites'- To turn a costume into a seperate sprite, right-click on the required costume and select Turn into new sprite. Keep in mind, this will remove the costume from the current sprite, and transfer it to a new sprite, rather than duplicating it so each sprite has a copy. *'Easy sprite rotation'- To carefully rotate a sprite, drag the blue line on its thumbnail. In addition, if you want to quickly set it back to 90 degrees, just double-click the sprite thumbnail. *'Deleting sprites' To delete a sprite from its thumbnail, right-click on it and select Delete. Alternatively, select the scissors from the upper middle-right menu and click on the required sprite to delete. *'Rearranging sprite thumbnails'- Drag the thumbnails around to the required order. *'Rearranging costumes'- Drag the thumbnails to the correct order. *'Taking graphics from the background'- To "carve" graphics from the background, right-click on it and select "grab screen region for new sprite". Blocks and Scripts *'Moving blocks to another sprite'- To move a set of blocks to another sprite, drag the stack over the receiving sprite's thumbnail and release. *'Straightening scripts'- To place all your scripts into a vertical line, right-click the Scripts Area and select "clean up". *'Receiving help'- To receive help about a block, right-click it and select "help". *'Blocks inside others'- Some blocks can fit inside others - blocks with curved edges can fit inside holes with typeable contents or drop-down boxes, for example. To place a block in a gap, drag it over the wanted area and release. *'Updating default X and Y values in blocks'- To update the X and Y values of specific blocks in the motion palette, leave the palette and enter it again. Paint Editor *'Cropping images'- To crop an image, select part of it with the selection tool and push Backspace or Delete. *'Image rotation'- To rotate part (or all) of an image, select it and push one of the rotation buttons. *'Precise rotation'- To rotate an image by a given amount of degrees, shift-click one of the rotation buttons and input a number. *'Precise size edits'- To grow or shrink an image to a given percentage, shift-click one of the size buttons and input a percentage. *'Continuous stamping'- To continuously stamp an image without multiple clicks, hold Shift while the mouse is down. *'Easy squares'- To draw a square, hold Shift while drawing a rectangle. *'Easy circles'- To draw a circle, hold Shift while drawing an oval. *'Easy lines'- To draw a vertical or horizontal line, hold Shift while drawing a line. *'Opposite color selection'- To import a color from the palette into the color storage piece, hold Shift while selecting a color or click the arrow to the right of the color storage and select the second color. *'Selecting colors outside the editor'- Hold the eyedropper tool and move it out of the editor. Reporters and Variables *'Showing Stage Monitors'- Check the boxes on the left of each value block. *'Changing displays'- Double-click the display for it to change to the next. Keyboard shortcuts (some are repeats) *'Deleting multiple sprites'- Hold Shift while using the Scissors tool to delete more than one sprite in one go. Category:Scratch Program